New Ulm
Sheila Howk
597-233-4308

NUREDC will utilize the “Get Broadband Program” to increase the number of retailers who take advantae of broadband for marketing and expanding their business.  As New Ulm is faced with big-box retailers entering the community, small businesses must position themselves to succeed.  Rural businesses can engage in worldwide e-commerce cheaply and effectively, particularly if they have a niche product, which New Ulm definitely has.  While small businesses may not be as visible as large ones on the Internet, they need the Net, especially the World Wide Web, to make their businesses grow.  Small businesses may be able to tap worldwide niche markets for their products and may even have an edge on the Net if they can effectively exploit those markets and develop a reputation for superior service. “Electronic commerce is emerging as an important tool for rural economic development as small, specialized firms are able to find international customers they would not have found through direct mail otherwise” Wallys W. Conhaim. 

A secondary strategy would be to collaborate with the broadband providers in promoting their existing community education outreach efforts.  NUREDC will engage in an effort of educating the general public as to which retailers and other venues have broadband available for public usage. In addition, New Ulm’s tourism success provides another opportunity for collaboration with the hotel and the bed and breakfast industries in this education process on broadband availability.  These strategies will help obtain the goal of increasing awareness of broadband and its usage.